James Johnston & Brad Cox Dominate APRA Country Awards

James Johnston leads the Most Performed Country Work category at this year’s APRA Music Awards – hosted by Australia’s APRA AMCOS – and is joined by additional local country music stars.

Johnston is a dual nominee in the same category, with two of his songs up for grabs: Got It Good and Same Songs. As APRA honours songwriters, Johnston’s teammates, including Melanie Dyer, Michael Delorenzis, and Michael Paynter (Got It Good), Kaylee Bell, Gavin Carfoot, Jared Porter, and Nolan Wynne (Same Songs), are nominated alongside him.

Delorenzis and Paynter were also nominated for their work on Casey Barnes’ Summer Nights. Along with Johnston and Barnes, Brad Cox and Morgan Evans have been nominated in the Most Performed Country Work category.

Brad Cox has received a nomination for his song, Last Time Last, with writers Phil Barton and John Pierce by his side. Morgan Evans has received a nod for Over For You, and writers Madison Love, Timothy Sommers and Geoffrey Warburton are up for the award.

It’s a strong country music category, and the artists mentioned above join pop stars including Troye Sivan and G Flip, hard rock and heavy metal acts Parkway Drive and The Amity Affliction, blues & roots outfits Frank Sultana and Tex Perkins And The Fat Rubber Band, and many more nominated for the 2024 APRA Music Awards.

The 2024 APRA Music Awards will be presented by Tom Gleeson alongside guest presenters Jen Cloher and Bumpy at Sydney’s ICC Theatre on Wednesday, 1 May.

You can find a complete list of nominees on The Music.

In other James Johnston news, the singer leads the country category at this year’s Queensland Music Awards with Got It Good.

He released Got It Good last February. Within a week, the track jumped a whopping 35 spots to #9 on the Countrytown Hot 50 after debuting at #44. The song features on his 20-track debut album, Raised Like That.

Meanwhile, this month, Brad Cox begins his Yarns & Yodels tour across regional Australia, promising a singalong and “a bloody good laugh” – making for a music meets comedy experience.

Brad Cox was the 2018 Toyota Star Maker winner at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, and in 2024, became a three-time Golden Guitar Award winner, taking home the accolades for Male Artist of the Year while his album, Acres, was named Contemporary Country Album of the Year and Top Selling Australian Country Album of the Year.